Currently, infrastructure servers of enterprise computing centers are typically configured as sets of nodes dedicated to a specific compute application. Such configurations create separate compute domains, such as a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) domain, a big data domain, a grid domain and a cloud domain, in which server nodes are locked into specific functions. Further, the domains in such configurations are often built to meet peak demand. Thus, the resources consumed by the current workload in a particular domain frequently leave excess capacity that is not utilized. At any given time, the greater the difference between peak and actual workload demand, the greater is the wasted capacity, which ultimately translates into higher costs.
There is a current need for a framework for harvesting excess compute cycle capacity across separate compute domains when it is not presently being utilized.